Month: August 2017

It has now been a long accepted fact that both George Dobson and George Farmer were the first two players to be employed as professional footballers by Everton Football Club. However, it is quite possible to believe that the same gratuities offered to these two players might well have extended to reach a third man. His name was Job Wilding and he came from Wrexham.
Both Dobson and Farmer first came to Liverpool during the Easter of 1885 and, having had a trail period with Everton, were invited to return to the club next season. Dobson returned alone and took up residence, but Farmer, who did likewise, almost certainly arrived back on Merseyside accompanied by Job Wilding. Both men, in course of the previous season, had played international football for Wales.
Wilding and Farmer had made their international debut, 14 March 1885, against England in a match that was played on the Leamington Ground in Blackburn. The visitors proved a match for...

When William Baxter moved to Liverpool from Clitheroe, he opened his own business, as a Chemist and Druggist, at 259 Great Homer Street in Liverpool. Some years later he married a local girl with whom he began to raise a family. James Clement Baxter, the second child to bless this union, was born in 1857.
He attended his local school, dedicated to St Frances Xavier, where he proved to be a bright pupil. He quickly moved on to the school's college, run by the Jesuit Order, from where he won a place to study medicine at the King and Queens University in Dublin and qualified on 6 February 1879, to practice medicine. James Baxter, having returned to his native town, set up a consulting room, along with his cousin Austin Hughes, at 102 Robson Street in Everton.
Six months later, he married the daughter of an Irish born Merchant who was now established as Liverpool Cotton Dealer. The lady of his choice...

The Life and Times of an Everton Goalkeeper
It was the winter of 1880 and the football players of Everton were trouping off their pitch on Stanley Park having just been soundly beaten by the parishioners of St John's Church in Bootle. Later that year they were approached by a young Scotsman who, having just moved in to the area, asked them if he might be allowed to join them in their “kick about” matches on the park. The Everton players agreed and welcomed him in to the fold. The new arrival then commenced to demonstrate his considerable football skills to the Everton players who quickly offered him the role of both club captain and coach. The newcomer's name was Jack McGill.
The newspapers of the time state that McGill was an ex-Rangers player while John Keats, the famous Everton historian, tell us he was born in Ayrshire. This however, is not correct. John McGill first saw the light of day, 25...

When you read into this it might make you think that parishioners of St Saviours were more instrumental in the formation of Everton than those of St Domingos. It's true that the Cuffs and the Wades were members of the Methodist chapel but Tom Evans, who I believe was an experienced footballer, could well be the main driving force behind Everton on the football field.Tom Evans, I believe, was pal William J Clarke and both men once lived on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border. Both men are the same age. It is Clarkes Father, who also came from this area, who is, in 1880, the Landlord of Queens Head in Everton.
This article, I hope, could provoke some debate amongst the members who, no doubt will have their own opinion on the subject.
Tony
The Rugby code of football still held sway in Liverpool when, in the summer of 1878, the first Australian touring side arrived to play a cricket match against the Stanley club...